Political report of the Executive of the Jewish Agency submitted to the ... Zionist Congress and the ... session of the Council of the Jewish Agency · 1937-08-01 · 8.1937 · p. Seite 18

18 ject of the proposed legislation had been considered in the light of the report of an official committee which had been set up by the Government to examine the position and to ascertain the facts. It was stated that the procedure to be adopted for applying the scheme had not yet been fixed and that the Jewish Agency would be fully consulted before legislation was enacted and the scheme brought into operation. Finally, the Jewish Agency's attention was drawn to two points: first, that the High Commissioner would retain the right to permit the sale of any subsistence area where he considered this would be for the public good, second, that the amount of land necessary for a subsistence area would vary according to its productive capacity. 20. There remained nothing for the Jewish Agency but to voice publicly its objection to the scheme and on January 31st it published a statement embodying its criticism (Appendix I). It should be added that the Jewish Agency was justified in regarding some of the reservations with which the prohibition had been fenced, as being the result of its representations. Nevertheless, its opposition to the scheme as a whole remained unchanged. Apart from the objections stated, serious misgivings were felt on account of the manner in which the scheme was likely to be operated in practice by the Palestine Administration. Past experience of the administration of the land laws had been such as not to encourage any optimism in this regard. The Legal Adviser to the Political Department prepared a detailed memorandum on the proposed measure which was to serve as a basis for further action. In the meantime the Executive asked to be acquainted with the contents of the report of the official committee of enquiry to which reference had been made in the High Commissioner's statement, in order that it might be able to comment on the facts on which the decision of the Government had been based. The Government expressed its inability to comply with the request of the Jewish Agency, but in affirming that the Jewish Agency would be fully consulted before legislation was enacted, it promised that in the course of those consultations the Executive would be apprised of the material evidence and of the recommendations of the Committee of Inquiry. As a result of the disturbances and the subsequent appointment of the Royal Commission, the issue appeared to have been shelved and ceased to be the subject of representations to the Government.